Secure environment public register (SEPR)

ABSTRACT

A Secure Environment Public Register (SEPR) provides a method and system that allows precious metals in the shape of ban(s) or units to be certified, specially numbered to provide exact linkage to an owner, allow secure movement of precious metals between secure facilities, and though Blockchain allow secure transfer of ownership between individuals and organizations. The SEPR allows gold and other precious metals to be easily held and traded in commerce with all the advantages of holding precious metals. The SEPR system allows exact audits of the metal bars on hand and avoids over-selling units since each bar is serialized and ownership is documented in a public register.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 63/282,012, filed on Nov. 22, 2021, titled SecureEnvironment Public Register (SEPR), the contents of which areincorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Field of The Invention

This invention relates to the general field of storage, verifying ofquality, diversion of storage locations and trading of physical goldwith institutions, gold handlers, and individuals.

Description of the Related Art

For thousands of years, gold and other precious metals, such as silver,have been a key storage for wealth, currency and a safe haven duringcrisis. Gold has also been a traditional hedge against inflation.Current state of the art for ownership of gold is part of a gold fundthat hold physical gold, such as the Electronically Trades Fund (ETF)GLD; or owning physical gold. There are several options in owningphysical gold. The first option is to buy and hold physical gold at homeor in a safe location that you control. The more common approach is toown gold as part of a bank's physical holding. Withdrawing gold out of abank is relatively complex because many investors want to store theirgold in other countries such as Switzerland, Singapore, or UnitedStates. When gold is held offshore, there are significant problemsgetting access and transporting when an owner wants to withdraw thegold. Personal use of gold is also a significant problem. If someone isselling you an ounce of gold, how do you know it is real gold or theamount they claim? How do you know the purity of gold? Person-to-persontransfer of gold is risky. Transporting of gold is risky. Security andstorage of gold is risky. Person-to-intuition, and the reverse, is alsorisky. Many of the current physical gold storage facilities state thatyou have a piece of the large gold block. This approach has the risk ofthe facility selling more pieces of gold than they physically have onhand. This can lead to a significant shortage should owners wish towithdraw their amount of gold. The prior art has not solved theseproblems in any way that the common man can avoid the significant risksof owning and trading physical gold. Transferring gold from one countryto another involves a lot of local and international rules andregulations.

From all of the above, there exists a need for a system that overcomesthe above-described problems associated with the current state of theart.

SUMMARY OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

To overcome the problems associated with the current state of the art,and to provide a safe, secure method of trading gold or other preciousmetals, a system and method are provided which provide qualityverification, storage, and transactions in a secure environment andmeeting government laws and regulations using a blockchain publicregister, allowing individuals and institutions a novel method for useof physical precious metals such as gold.

The Secure Environment Public Register is a method and system thatallows precious metals bar or units to be certified, specially numberedto provide exact linkage to an owner, allow secure movement of preciousmetals between secure facilities, and through blockchain, allow securetransfer of ownership between individuals, organizations, internationalinstitutions, and countries. The SEPR allows gold and other preciousmetals to be easily in commerce with all the advantages of holdingprecious metals. The SEPR system will also allow exact audits of themetal bars on hand and avoid over-selling units since each bar isserialized and ownership is documented in a public register.

The primary embodiment of the Secure Environment Public Register (SEPR)system is built on one or more secure storage facilities connected withsecure transfer transportation equipment that verifies shipping andreceipt of precious metals between secure facilities, differentlocations, countries, or with the metal owners. The secure environmenthas controlled entry and exit points for accepting metals, analyzingmetals, refining metals to achieve the proper quality, forming metals toa designated weight, engraving, packaging, serial numbering, each metalbar, then entering each serial-numbered metal bar into a register. Eachsecure facility has exact accountability of the metal bars it holds. Theregister can be a blockchain register, Non-Fungible Token (NFT) or anyother public register system. The blockchain, NFT, or other publicregister system confirms to the owner assurances of quality, quantity,location, and security whereby the system allows for secure transfer ofmetals between secure storage facilities either physically or virtually,and to and from individuals and between individuals. The serial numbercan be on the bar or the packaging, or both.

The secure environment has one of more said secure facilities, secureentry and exit points. The entry points are configured to receive,inspect, process, and verify quality of metals entering the secureenvironment. The entry points have instruments to measure the weight andquality of metal they are receiving in the secure facility. The securefacility has a machine that can processes metals entering the securefacility and can form metal bars to specific quality and weightspecified in a bar unit. The entry point has equipment for engraving orlabeling metal bars with a unique identification number. The securefacility has a register and documents each metal bar to include physicallocation and assigned owner. Each secure storage facility has a securestructure sufficient for storage of metal bars, a secure access protocolto maintain security and accountability of metal bars.

The secure environment has a secure transportation system which allowssecure transfer of said gold bars between secure facilities.

The secure environment has a secure ownership accountability system,such as a blockchain register system to document ownership,transactions, and physical location of each metal bar.

Metal bar location is important since investors may want to locatedifferent quantities of bars in different countries. A key factor inowning physical gold is deciding which countries you want to locate thephysical gold or other precious metals. International uncertainty andcrises play a major part in diversification and confidence levels whereto store precious metals. The SEPR system allows storage andtransferring of metal bars between countries seamlessly and documentedin a public register. The SEPR system would take into considerationinternational laws, storage requirements, and banking protocols.

The primary embodiment of the SEPR system is using gold and silver andother metals. An alternate embodiment of the SEPR method and system isusing other metals such as palladium, copper, or rare earth minerals.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts the primary components of the Secure Environment PublicRegister system and method.

FIG. 2 depicts a process for raw or unregistered precious metalsentering the secure environment and secure storage facility.

FIG. 3 depicts a construction of an identification number.

FIG. 4 depicts transfer of a metal bar ownership between two mobiledevices.

FIG. 5 depicts the process to withdraw a metal bar from the secureenvironment.

FIG. 6 depicts the process to transfer ownership virtually to a newlocation within the secure environment.

FIG. 7 depicts the process to physically transfer ownership to a newlocation within the secure environment.

FIG. 8 depicts several quality requirements for metals outside thesecure environment to be performed in order to convert to standard metalbars for trading inside the secure environment.

FIG. 9 depicts several data requirements that are on each metal bar andinformation that would be in the public ledger or blockchain ledger.

FIG. 10 depicts normal transactions of metals and/or metal barstransitioning throughout the secure environment.

FIG. 11 depicts normal transaction of metals and/or metal bars beingdeposited into the secure environment, moving around within the secureenvironment, and withdrawn from the secure environment.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS FOUND IN THE DRAWINGS

Element 1 represents the secure environment of the SEPR system.

Element 2 represents the public register.

Element 3 represents the unsecure environment outside the secureenvironment.

Element 4 represents a secure storage facility(s).

Element 4.1 represents a specific secure storage facility.

Element 4.2 represents a specific secure storage facility.

Element 4.3 represents a specific secure storage facility.

Element 4.4 represents a specific secure storage facility.

Element 4.5 represents a specific secure storage facility.

Element 4.6 represents a specific secure storage facility.

Element 5 represents a precious metal prior to entering the secureenvironment.

Element 6 represents a precious metal bar departing the secureenvironment.

Element 7 represents a mobile communications device.

Element 8 represents a mobile communication device.

Element 9 represents secure communications and transfer links betweensecure facilities.

Element 10 represents the deposit and process procedures and equipmentfor producing precious metal bars.

Element 11 represents the withdrawal process of the unique preciousmetal bar from the secure area to the owner.

Element 12 represents the communications link, connecting to the publicregister document monitoring and recording all transactions.

Element 13 represents the precious metal quality inspection equipmentand process.

Element 14 represents the equipment and process to form metal bar(s).

Element 15 represents adding serial number, identification number tometal bar and/or label or packaging.

Element 16 represents a certified and serial numbered metal bar.

Element 17 represents the certified and serial numbered metal barentering the storage process in a secure storage facility.

Element 18 represents documentation of the storage location in thesecure storage facility.

Element 19 represents entering the metal bar information into the publicregister.

Element 20 represents withdrawal instructions between the owner'scommunication device and the secure storage facility.

Element 21 represents the secure storage facility verifying ownershipand identifying the location of the serial numbered metal bar.

Element 22 represents modifying storage location information from metalbar. identification number or in accordance with procedures to removethe metal bar(s) from the secure environment.

Element 23 represents shipping or transporting the metal bar(s) to theowner's requested location.

Element 24 represents verification of receipt of metal bar(s).

Element 25 represents both owner's communication device and securestorage facility updating the public register server of the completedtransfer.

Element 26 represents the communication from a communications device toa secure storage facility to transfer within the secure environment totransfer metal bar(s) to another secure storage facility in order todiversify holding in several different countries or locations.

Element 27 represents communication from the current metal bar holdingsecure storage facility informing the requested secure storage facilityfor a virtual transfer or physical transfer within the secureenvironment.

Element 28 represents the second secure storage facility selectingself-owned or unassigned metal bars and informs first security storagefacility of a virtual transfer by trading an equal number of serialnumber bars and updating the public register server.

Element 29 represents updating the public register server of the changein location and serial number.

Element 30 represents a request from one secure storage facility toanother to ship or receive additional metal bars.

Element 31 represents and agreement from a second storage facility toship or receive additional metal bars.

Element 32 represents a secure shipping transaction of metal barsbetween secure storage facilities.

Element 33 represents the two secure storage facilities agreeing onserial number location changes and update the Public Register Server.

Element 34 represents a metal bar's characteristics selected from a listof composition quality, weight, authenticity, certification,identification number, serial number or storage location.

Element 35 represents data in public ledger or blockchain ledger.

Element 36 represents physical and virtual transfer of metal bars insidethe secure environment.

Element 37 represents depositing metal in bulk or bar forms.

Element 38 represents withdrawing metal bar(s) from the secureenvironment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

With the invention of Blockchain, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI),internet connectivity, Non-Fungible Tokens, a revolutionary approach hasbeen developed with a configuration of our invention that solves currentproblems with owning, securing, storing, trading, and transferring goldand other precious metals.

FIG. 1 depicts a primary embodiment of the SEPR. A secure environment 1is established comprising secure storage facilities 4, 4.1, 4.2, and . .. 4.n; secure storage facilities transfer gold bars virtually orphysically through secure links 9, within the secure environment 1. Asecure environment 1 differs from a non-secure environment 3 in such amanner that the metal bars remain in a secure environment and are notstored with the owner. The owner may withdraw 11 of the bars 6 from thesecure environment, but the bars are no longer considered part of thesecure system. Should an owner want to deposit 10 bars of gold 5 backinto the secure environment, the bars have to go through a securestorage facility 4 where bars are created or recertified 6. This uniquefeature of an embodiment of this invention provides assurance that allbars within the secure environment are certified and accounted for, ateach location. This provides confidence among individuals andorganizations that trade metal bars.

The facilities within the secure environment 1 communicate with a publicregister 2 documenting all transactions, locations, and quantities ofmetal bars. Metal bar owners communicate through the Internet 12 onmobile devices 7 in order to conduct transactions to recipients throughthe Internet 12 and mobile device 8. Raw and bar metal deposits 5 aremade in a secure facility for processing 10. Withdrawals 11 can be madeby owners requesting their bar 6 or bars.

FIG. 2 depicts the detailed process of entering raw or unregisteredmaterial 5 into a secure environment. The raw unregistered material 5 isinspected 13 for material quality, fineness, and composition. Thematerial is processed to form standard metal bars of specific uniformcharacteristics that will allow for trade. Unique ID numbers 15 andidentification information are added to each of the metal bars in orderto create a unique metal bar 16. Once the unique metal bars 16 arecreated, they are officially entered 17 into the secure environment 1 ata secure facility 4. The secure facility 4 adds location information 18for each metal bar and enters the data 19 into the public register 2.

FIG. 3 depicts how a metal bar 16 is tracked and identified by acombination of country, location, and secure storage facility location15. An alternate embodiment for tracking can be utilizing the sameidentification number 15 and tracking location in the public register 2.

FIG. 4 depicts the transfer of ownership from a mobile device 7 to arecipient's device 8 documented on the public register 2. The ownercertifies his ownership of a gold bar 16 located at secure storagefacility 4, as proof of ownership and availability for transfer of thegold bar or other metal bar. This transfer is done in accordance withstandard blockchain, NFT, Internet business processes such as EIP-721.EIP-721 is the standard industry process. These transactions could alsobe represented by NFTs, using the standard practice described inEIP-721. As an alternative, a separate, privately controlled entitycould be specifically set up for brokering the transactions betweenindividuals, organizations and corporations.

FIG. 5 depicts the process for an owner requesting to receive his metalbar 16. The owner's communication device 7 communicates to the securestorage facility 4 a request for his documented gold bar(s) 16. Thesecure storage facility 4 then identifies the location 21 of the goldbar 16. The secure storage facility 4, along with the owner'scommunication device 7 would update 25 the public register 2. The securestorage facility 4 would then de-process the gold bar 16 by removingspecific location information 22 and shipping the de-processed gold bar22 to the owner's requested location 23. The owner then verifies receipt24.

FIG. 6 depicts an owner's request to virtually transfer metal bars to anew location. Owner's communication device 7 then sends a request 26 tosecure storage facility 4.1 where the owner's metal bar 16 currentlyresides, in order to transfer the metal bar 16 to a specific new storagefacility 4.2 in a different location or country. Secure storage facility4.1 requests a virtual transfer 27 to transfer an equivalent metal bar16. Secure storage facility 4.2 selects unassigned metal bars andinforms secure storage facility 4.1 of replacement identificationnumber. Secure facility 4.2 and secure facility 4.1 both update thepublic register 2 of the change of ownership of metal bar 16 through theequivalent bar with different location and serial number. Securefacility 4.2 informs owner's communication device 7 of the new serialnumber and location as documented in the public register.

FIG. 7 depicts physical transfer of ownership between secure storagefacilities. Secure storage facility 4.1 informs 30 secure storagefacility 4.3 of a request to send or receive physical bars. Securestorage facility 4.3 agrees 31 to the shipping or receiving of physicalbars. Secure storage facility 4.1 ships or receives metal bar 16 tosecure storage facility 4.2. The public register 2 is updated 33 by bothsecure storage facilities 4.1, 4.2.

FIG. 8 depicts depositing raw or unregistered material 5 from anon-secure environment 3 into a secure environment 1. The raw orunregistered material 5 goes through quality inspections 13 and metalbars are formed 14. These metal bars 14 meet requirement standards 34and once properly labeled, they become certified metal bars 16.

FIG. 9 depicts certified metal bars 16 in a secure environment 1providing to the public register 2 specific identification, storage andowner information 35.

FIG. 10 depicts virtual and physical transactions 36 between securestorage facilities 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5 inside a secureenvironment 1.

FIG. 11 depicts depositing metals 37 from a non-secure environment 3 toa secure storage facility 4.1, for processing. Once the deposited goldor other metal is processed and in the form of certified metal bars, themetal bar(s) can transfer either virtually or physically 36 betweensecure storage facilities 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5. Certified gold barscan be withdrawn 38 from the secure environment 1 to the non-secureenvironment 3.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a physically secureenvironment configured to receive precious metal thereto, retain theprecious metal therein, and the release precious metal therefrom; and aprecious metal registration system configured to record precious metalidentification information, ownership status information and ownershipinformation of precious metal, location information of precious metal,and certification information and de-processing information of preciousmetal; the system further configured to receive precious metal into thephysically secure environment by at least one of inspecting a quality ofthe received precious metal and certifying a quality value of thereceived precious metal, at least one of receiving the certifiedprecious metal in or processing the certified precious metal into astandard uniform characteristic, and registering the certified preciousmetal in the standard uniform characteristic in the registration systemby providing a registration indicia on one of the registered preciousmetal or a container containing the registered precious metal, and acorresponding registration record in a precious metal registrationdatabase of the registration system; the system further configured toretain and manage precious metal within the physically secureenvironment by assigning an ownership record associated with oneparticular registered precious metal of the standard uniformcharacteristic from a first owner to a second owner, transferring theone particular registered precious metal of the standard uniformcharacteristic from a first storage facility within the physicallysecure environment to a second storage facility within the physicallysecure environment, and assigning an unassigned registered preciousmetal of the standard uniform characteristic to a third owner andupdating the assigned registered precious metal of the standard uniformcharacteristic in the registration system with ownership information ofthe third owner; and the system further configured to release registeredprecious metal of the standard uniform characteristic from thephysically secure environment by de-processing precious metal in thestandard uniform characteristic by removing location information from acorresponding registration record in the precious metal registrationdatabase, and physically removing the de-processed precious metal fromthe physically secure environment.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein thephysically secure environment further comprises a plurality of storagefacilities.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the physically secureenvironment further comprises a secure transportation system thattransports the precious metal between at least two remote storagefacilities.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the precious metalcomprises at least one from the group of gold and silver.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the precious metal identification informationcomprises a unique identification number for a smallest indivisible unitof the precious metal stored within the physically secure environment.6. The system of claim 1, wherein ownership status information comprisesone of an unassigned ownership status or an assigned ownership status.7. The system of claim 1, wherein the ownership information comprisesownership entity identification information.
 8. The system of claim 1,wherein location information comprises at least one of a location oforigination or a location of reception into the physically secureenvironment and a location of current disposition within the physicallysecure environment.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein certificationinformation comprises information related to one of a particularstandard of quality of the precious metal or a particular standard ofcomposition of the precious metal.
 10. The system of claim 1, whereinthe de-certification information comprises information indicating avoided previous certification for the precious metal.
 11. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the certified quality or the quality of the receivedprecious metal comprises one of a standard of purity value or a standardof composition quantity.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein thestandard uniform characteristic comprises a non-divisible weight or masswhen the certified precious metal is received into and retained withinthe physically secure environment, and one of the standard of purityvalue or the standard of composition quantity.
 13. The system of claim1, wherein the registration indicia comprises a received locationindicia, certification indicia and a unique identifier indicia.
 14. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein transferring further comprises a securetransportation system within the physically secure environment.
 15. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the first and second storage facilities arelocated in one of distinct geographic locations or country having asecure transportation system connected between the first and secondstorage facilities.
 16. The system of claim 1, wherein the first andsecond storage facilities are located in one of a same geographiclocation or country.
 17. A system comprising: a physically secureenvironment configured to receive precious metal thereto, retain theprecious metal therein, and the release precious metal therefrom; and aprecious metal registration system configured to record ownership statusinformation and ownership information of precious metal, and locationinformation of precious metal; the system further configured to receiveprecious metal into the physically secure environment by at least one ofinspecting a quality of the received precious metal and certifying aquality value of the received precious metal, at least one of processingthe certified precious metal into a standard uniform characteristic, andregistering the certified precious metal in the standard uniformcharacteristic in the registration system by providing a registrationindicia on one of the registered precious metal or a containercontaining the registered precious metal, and a correspondingregistration record in a precious metal registration database of theregistration system; the system further configured to retain and manageprecious metal within the physically secure environment by assigning anownership record associated with one particular registered preciousmetal of the standard uniform characteristic between owners; and thesystem further configured to release registered precious metal of thestandard uniform characteristic from the physically secure environmentby de-processing precious metal in the standard uniform characteristicby removing location information from a corresponding registrationrecord in the precious metal registration database, and physicallyremoving the de-processed precious metal from the physically secureenvironment.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the system is furtherconfigured to retain and manage precious metal within the physicallysecure environment by assigning an unassigned registered precious metalof the standard uniform characteristic to an owner and updating theassigned registered precious metal of the standard uniformcharacteristic in the registration system with ownership information ofthe owner.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the system is furtherconfigured to retain and manage precious metal within the physicallysecure environment by transferring the one particular registeredprecious metal of the standard uniform characteristic from a firststorage facility within the physically secure environment to a secondstorage facility within the physically secure environment.